No More Lone Rangers!

Back in the early days of television, unlike now, only two superheroes dominated the screen: Superman and the Lone Ranger. Siding with good, the Lone Ranger was independent, operated on his own agenda and wandered belonging to no particular community. He wore a mask and would slip in and out of town anonymously.

Increasingly today, many Christians are adopting the Lone Ranger lifestyle. They visit various churches and attend numerous conferences and events. But they don’t become involved in a local church community and so remain on the fringes, unknown, unsupported and underutilized.

For these Lone Ranger Christians, retaining their independence and keeping their options open as they feel “led by the Spirit” is highly important, but they are missing a foundational understanding of their calling in Christ. We are not called to be nomadic Lone Rangers for Christ on a solitary journey. Abba God knows we need loving support, and He calls us to be interdependent servants in the community of believers under properly aligned apostolic authority.

The writer of Hebrews exhorts us not to forsake the assembly, in other words, the local church (Hebrews 10:25). Then in Hebrews 13:17, we hear this message: “Submit to your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit.” Thus Scripture helps us understand that the Christian life is a community life.

It is also a life lived through proper apostolic alignment. In his letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul explains, “Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

“Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching… Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-15).

Abba God's plan for each of His children is that we would fully embrace the fivefold ministry of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher. As we come into this alignment, mutually submitted to authority and to one another, we will be built up in the unity of our faith. This is the only way that we can become mature in Christ. Without this alignment, the Lone Ranger Christians remain alone, struggling to mature, wandering from one teaching to the next. They do not have the support they need to grow in unity to their fullness in Christ.

The last prayer request Jesus made before His crucifixion was that all of His followers would come into unity in Him. Psalm 133 explains that submission to properly aligned authority brings unity and blessing to everyone. Discover the blessings of unity in your own life. Personally give yourself over to the lordship of Jesus Christ, and commit to become an active member in a local church that is aligned with all five of the ministry offices in full operation.

Please join us this Sunday, as we will have a special guest speaker, Winkie Pratney, sharing at our 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. services.